Renewable energy supply can meet the 2015 target

Chennai, July 14 (IANS) Energy from renewable sources can meet the 10 percent target set by the National Action Plan on Climate Change by 2015, a top power sector official said here Wednesday. “A study conducted by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) revealed that the supply from renewable energy resources could exceed 47,720 MW by 2015 and the share of solar power alone will be around 4,000 MW,” CERC Chairman Pramod Deo said.

Inaugurating the two-day seminar on renewal energy Green Power 2010, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he said: “Considering the infirm nature of generation and difficulties in scheduling, there is a need to promote smart grid technologies.”

He said the government is offering a generation-based incentive for the solar power industry so as to meet the National Solar Mission target of 20 GW by 2022.

He said that India’s total installed power generation capacity is 1,61,352 MW as on May, 2010, wherein the share of renewable energy is about 10 percent (17,222 MW).

However, currently renewable energy contributes just four percent of total power generation.

According to R. Chirstodas Gandhi, chairman and managing director, Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TNEDA), the renewal energy sector should look at small projects to provide power for unconnected and remote locations.

“We should use renewable energy not only for augmenting power but also for making the scenario more inclusive for the participation of small scale industry,” he said.

Demanding doubling of generation-based incentives to Re.1 per unit, Ramesh Kymal, chairman, Renewable Energy Council, CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre, said the cap of Rs.6.2 million a MW needs to be removed.

Suggesting the incentives extended under solar mission be extended to other sectors to avoid lopsided growth, Kymal added that the government has to make available the fund generated through levying a cess of Rs.50 per tonne of coal to fund the renewable energy projects at lower interest rates.